Assessment of personal care and medical robots from older adults' perspective

Demographic reports indicate that population of older adults is growing significantly over the world and in particular in developed nations. Consequently, there are a noticeable number of demands for certain services such as health-care systems and assistive medical robots and devices. In today's world, different types of robots play substantial roles specifically in medical sector to facilitate human life, especially older adults. Assistive medical robots and devices are created in various designs to fulfill specific needs of older adults. Though medical robots are utilized widely by senior citizens, it is dramatic to find out into what extent assistive robots satisfy their needs and expectations. This paper reviews various assessments of assistive medical robots from older adults' perspectives with the purpose of identifying senior citizen's needs, expectations, and preferences. On the other hand, these kinds of assessments inform robot designers, developers, and programmers to come up with robots fulfilling elderly's needs while improving their life quality

Antitumor alkyl-lysophospholipid analog edelfosine induces apoptosis in pancreatic cancer by targeting endoplasmic reticulum

Pancreatic cancer remains as one of the most deadly cancers, and responds poorly to current therapies. The prognosis is extremely poor, with a 5-year survival of less than 5%. Therefore, search for new effective therapeutic drugs is of pivotal need and urgency to improve treatment of this incurable malignancy. Synthetic alkyl-lysophospholipid analogs (ALPs) constitute a heterogeneous group of unnatural lipids that promote apoptosis in a wide variety of tumor cells. In this study, we found that the anticancer drug edelfosine was the most potent ALP in killing human pancreatic cancer cells, targeting endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Edelfosine was taken up in significant amounts by pancreatic cancer cells and induced caspase- and mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis. Pancreatic cancer cells show a prominent ER and edelfosine accumulated in this subcellular structure, inducing a potent ER stress response, with caspase-4, BAP31 and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) activation, CHOP/GADD153 upregulation and phosphorylation of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2 α-subunit that eventually led to cell death. Oral administration of edelfosine in xenograft mouse models of pancreatic cancer induced a significant regression in tumor growth and an increase in apoptotic index, as assessed by TUNEL assay and caspase-3 activation in the tumor sections. The ER stress-associated marker CHOP/GADD153 was visualized in the pancreatic tumor isolated from edelfosine-treated mice, indicating a strong in vivo ER stress response. These results suggest that edelfosine exerts its pro-apoptotic action in pancreatic cancer cells, both in vitro and in vivo, through its accumulation in the ER, which leads to ER stress and apoptosis. Thus, we propose that the ER could be a key target in pancreatic cancer, and edelfosine may constitute a prototype for the development of a new class of antitumor drugs targeting the ER.This work was supported by grants from Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria and European Commission (FIS-FEDER PS09/ 01915), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (SAF2008-02251, BFU 2008-01871 and RD06/0020/1037 from Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cáncer, Instituto de Salud Carlos III), European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7-2007-2013 (Grant HEALTH-F2-2011-256986) and Junta de Castilla y León (CSI052A11-2, GR15-Experimental Therapeutics and Translational Oncology Program, Biomedicine Project 2009 and Biomedicine Project 2010-2011). CG is supported by the Ramón y Cajal Program from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain.Peer Reviewe

The impact of storytelling on the consumer brand experience: The case of a firm-originated story

Contains fulltext : 112190.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Stories fascinate people and are often more easily remembered than facts. Much has been written about the power of stories in branding, but very little empirical evidence exists of their effects on consumer responses. In the present study, we investigate how a firm-originated story influences consumers’ brand experience, by comparing the brand experiences of two groups of consumers. One group was exposed to the story and one group was not. An existing brand was used in the study, which had not been launched in the focal country. In-depth interviews were conducted with individuals in the two experimental conditions. The comparison revealed remarkable differences between the two groups. Consumers who were exposed to the story described the brand in much more positive terms and were willing to pay more for the product. The study contributes to brand management research and practice by demonstrating the power of storytelling on consumer experiences. The results are also important from a managerial point of view. They demonstrate how brand stories can be used to create and reinforce positive brand associations. A review of past research in combination with the findings demonstrates that more research is needed on the effect of stories on consumer brand responses.2 maart 201215 p

Early parental deprivation in the marmoset monkey produces long-term changes in hippocampal expression of genes involved in synaptic plasticity and implicated in mood disorder.

In mood disorder, early stressors including parental separation are vulnerability factors, and hippocampal involvement is prominent. In common marmoset monkeys, daily parental deprivation during infancy produces a prodepressive state of increased basal activity and reactivity in stress systems and mild anhedonia that persists at least to adolescence. Here we examined the expression of eight genes, each implicated in neural plasticity and in the pathophysiology of mood disorder, in the hippocampus of these same adolescent marmosets, relative to their normally reared sibling controls. We also measured hippocampal volume. Early deprivation led to decreases in hippocampal growth-associated protein-43 (GAP-43) mRNA, serotonin 1A receptor (5-HT(1A)R) mRNA and binding ([3H]WAY100635), and to increased vesicular GABA transporter mRNA. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), synaptophysin, vesicular glutamate transporter 1 (VGluT1), microtubule-associated protein-2, and spinophilin transcripts were unchanged. There were some correlations with in vivo biochemical and behavioral indices, including VGluT1 mRNA with reward-seeking behavior, and serotonin 1A receptor mRNA with CSF cortisol. Early deprivation did not affect hippocampal volume. We conclude that early deprivation in a nonhuman primate, in the absence of subsequent stressors, has a long-term effect on the hippocampal expression of genes implicated in synaptic function and plasticity. The reductions in GAP-43 and serotonin 1A receptor expressions are comparable with findings in mood disorder, supporting the possibility that the latter reflect an early developmental contribution to disease vulnerability. Equally, the negative results suggest that other features of mood disorder, such as decreased hippocampal volume and BDNF expression, are related to different aspects of the pathophysiological process